40% College Savings: For Real!

Show me the money, say you who’ve calculated the costs of your little angel faced cherubs four years at the pricey institution of higher partying learning. You’ve added it up and almost choked on the number. Now you are trying to decide between:

• Disappointing them: Sorry no Yale for You.
• Take on an enormous debt load yourself: Sorry honey no early retirement, we’ll be working ’till we are in Depends.
• Letting the little one take on the enormous debt: Maybe he/she can get on You-Tube protesting with a sign with a six figure number on it when the President speaks!
  

  Student Loan Debt: A New Lifelong Friend!

{And be careful when you are doing cost comparison shopping. College’s own calculators can seriously underestimate your out of pocket costs, according to the Wall Street Journal.}

How can I so boldly proclaim to save you tens of thousands of dollars on your little darling’s University of Choice?

It’s not rocket science and you’ve probably already at least considered ‘IT’. Let me push you over the edge by reminding you why ‘IT”S’ such a great idea and how dumb it would be if you didn’t do ‘IT’.

A little nudge from me to you, at no cost…

What the hell is ‘IT’?

Saving Money On College Costs Secret: Shhhh!

Have your little one stay home and get his/her full 2 year associates degree at your local community college.

Why would you want the little monsters to stay in your home any longer than necessary? Why would you want them to go to the local no-name institution while your friend’s kids are headed to the elite universities that you could brag about at your next Rotary Social?

Why, MONEY of course. Loads and loads of the green stuff. Money you could save to send her on a year long journey around the world before she starts her lifetime of slavery work. Or money he could use to buy a car at the completion of his studies to reward him for his diligence at staying away from all the distractions that make up college life.

How much money? Well, that depends on the school you’re considering.

Everybody likes a story, so let’s tell the story of Ron and Paul.

Ron and Paul are lifetime best buds and are looking forward to life after high school graduation. They both want to be computer engineers and move to California and work for Google or maybe a new start-up with stock options instead of salaries.

They are both accepted at Georgia Tech. Ron decides (after carefully running the numbers through the Hewlett Packard 10B business calculator he dusted off and then stole from his father’s desk) to do his first two years at his local community college.

Paul’s parents wouldn’t hear of their beloved staying at home when all their friends’ kids were headed to Athens, Auburn, or Tallahassee, with some headed to Miami, Nashville, New York, Boston, and New Haven. So they piled into the Yukon, to find him an Atlanta apartment close to campus, the Bobby Dodd Stadium and of course, the Varsity.

Ron’s Story-back at home!

At the end of two years, Ron had a 2 year associates degree that cost him $6,000, yep 6 grand-that’s not a typo.

The Mom and Dad room and board was essentially free, and he was able to actually pay back the bank of Mom and Pop for some of his costs as he had time to work part-time cleaning mal-ware off his parent’s friends computers, and still maintain a 3.8 GPA (Damn that ‘C’ in Archery-too bad they didn’t have Halo for a PE class….)

He was easily admitted to his coveted Georgia Tech Computer Science School for those last two years and even got a scholarship because of his GPA.

Paul’s Story!

Paul’s parents, were out $45,000 for the combined costs of those first two years of school, food, lodging and a little Sweetwater Pale Ale from the late night romps down Peachtree Street. “Hey that ‘Peach Drop’ was cool on New Year’s!”

Paul wasn’t quite ready to apply for the computer science program after two years, as he hadn’t finished his basics. It wasn’t his fault he had to drop a couple of classes that first year while being fraternity pledged and having to wash cars for upperclassmen. He was going to add another semester (or two) to finish up his core, and work like hell to get his GPA high enough to get into that computer program he coveted for those last two years.

They both eventually got that precious degree in Computer Science (minoring in modeling-the computer kind…) from Georgia Tech, even though Ron received his a year earlier than Paul. The degrees and diplomas looked identical, though Ron’s total cost was $56,000 and Paul’s pinged out at a little over a hundred grand, with that extra year thrown in.

Total savings for Ron was $39,000 (and that’s not counting costs of the extra year Paul required-I didn’t want to compare apples to oranges.)

Ron enjoyed getting to show his friend Paul his cubicle and all the toys he got to play with in Silicon Valley as Paul was interviewing at Google with Ron’s name on his application as a reference.

This little fictional story was made up between my ears but the numbers are real. I’ve had them checked out by college admissions folks and by talking to real people who have taken both these routes for their degrees. If your child is headed to a private school or out of state, the savings are even more dramatic: 2-4 times as much as in this example.

Life isn’t all about the money, but taking on a lifetime burden of college debt isn’t smart. Before you say, “what about all those contacts my child will make during those two years, you can’t put a price on that.” A smart kid can make just as many contacts in his final two years at the university of his/her choice-that’s where he’ll be in mixing and mingling with the alumni/businesses people in his field. You don’t make many contacts taking freshman composition.

And a 20-21 year old can handle the temptations of the big city or big university way better than an 18 year old. That’s just the way it is….

Reader Questions:

What say you? Did you go to a community college and transfer after two years? Did you feel deprived in any way, except not having as much debt?

If you decide to save 30, 40, or 60 grand from reading this article, let me know. I would love to hear your story and tips are welcome (15% sounds about right……)

Dr Dean

{photo credit: DokeyHotey c.c.}

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